Ata Quotes

When the invocation descends into the heart, if there is darkness within, it illuminates it; and if there is already light, the invocation increases the light and intensifies it. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

We are victims of our history and our present. They place too many obstacles in the way of love. And we cannot enjoy even our differences in peace. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

Money-making is like a god possessing a priest. He never will leave you, until he has occupied you, wholly changed the order of your being, and seared you through and up and down. Then only would he eventually leave you, but nothing of you except an exhausted wreck, lying prone and wondering who are you. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

Paraphrased: The way of al-Junayd includes among other things abstaining constantly from resisting God Most High in whatever happens to one, whether good or bad ... ~ Ibn Ata Allah

If you are aware of your humility, then you are arrogant. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

When the heart becomes empty, the mimbar of the Divine Oneness is placed therein and the sultan of gnosis sits upon it. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

Guilt is born in the same hour with pleasure, like anything in this universe and its enemy. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

At the age of 15, a teacher had asked me what I wanted to do for a career, and without knowing why or even how I replied that I wanted to be a poet. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

Persist in that invocation until the unity of the world is subsumed for you in a single sphere, so that with the eye of your heart you will see naught in the two worlds save the One. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

Personally, I just got one of these Vonage IP phones. It's actually pretty cool. It comes with one of these Cisco ATA routers where you just plug an analog handset in. ~ Rob Glaser

Clearly, she was enjoying herself to see that woman hurt. It was nothing she had desired. Nor did it seem as if she could control it, this inhuman sweet sensation to see another human being squirming. It hit her like a stone, the knowledge that there is pleasure in hurting. A strong three-dimensional pleasure, an exclusive masculine delight that is exhilarating beyond all measure. And this too is God's gift to man? She wondered. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

The gnosis of God is intermediate between immoderation, which is ascribing human characteristics to God, and negligence, which is denying any attributes to God ... The Truth lies in the balance between the two extremes. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

If He opens a door for you, thereby making Himself known, pay no heed if your do not measure up to this. For, in truth, He has not opened if for you but out of a desire to make Himself known to you. Do you not know that He is the one who presented the knowledge of Himself to you, whereas you are the one who presented Him with deeds? What a difference between what He brings to you and what you present to Him! ~ Ibn Ata Allah

The very old certainly do not go back on lunch remains but they do bite back at old conversational topics ... ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

Invoking the letters of God's Name without presence of mind is invocation of the tongue; invoking with presence of mind is invocation of the heart; and invoking with an absence of self-awareness because of absorption in the Invoked is the invocation of the Self - this is the hidden invocation! ~ Ibn Ata Allah

Allah was when there was nothing else than Him, and His Throne was upon the water, and He wrote in the Reminder (al-dhikr) all things, and He created the heavens and the earth. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

My god
how gentle you are with me
in spite of my great ignorance
and how merciful You are with me
in spite of my ugly deeds ~ Ibn Ata Allah

O yes, everyone gets lonely some time or other. After all, if we look closer into ourselves, shall we not admit that the warmth from other people comes so sweet to us when it comes, because, we always carry with us the knowledge of the cold loneliness of death? ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

If you make demands on Him, you doubt Him.
If you seek Him, you are absent from Him.
If you seek other-than-Him, you are shameless before Him.
If you make demands on other-than-Him, you are distant from Him. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

But what she also came to know was that someone somewhere would always see in any kind of difference, an excuse to be mean. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

Nothing is difficult, if you seek it through your Lord; nothing is easy, if you seek it through your self. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

It may well be that you are in a bad state, but to keep company with someone worse than you would allow to see good in yourself. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

People praise you for what they suppose is in you; but you must blame your soul for what you know is in it. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

Love? Love? Love is not safe, my lady silk, love is dangerous. It is deceitfully sweet like wine from a fresh palm tree at dawn. Love is fine for singing about and love songs are good to listen to, sometimes even to dance to. But when we need to count on human strength, and when we have to count pennies for food for our stomachs and clothes for our backs, love is nothing. Ah my lady, the last man any woman should think of marrying is the man she loves. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

We give to God of our strength, not our weakness. But we also say: "Da lifneh mi ata omed" - Know before whom you stand. We know what we are in the face of that. We see the full picture - God and ourselves. We cannot see ourselves as more than we are because we see how much greater is the reality. But we must not lessen our value in our own eyes either, because we are a necessary part of this reality. It is no small thing that we are able to "stand" and to address that reality.
It would be good if we could approach life the way we approach prayer, knowing before whom we stand. ~ Ovadya Ben Malka

Whenever there remains any support for the ego within, even if it be only an atom's weight, then you are pretentious and have a devil who leads you astray. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

If you make intense supplication and the timing of the answer is delayed, do not despair of it. His reply to you is guaranteed; but in the way He chooses, not the way you choose, and at the moment He desires, not the moment you desire. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

Your Saying "God is Most Great" does not mean that He is greater than something else, since there is nothing else alongside of Him, so that it could be said that He is greater than it. Rather, the meaning of Allahu Akbar is that He is much too great to be perceived by the senses or for the depths of His Majesty to be reached by reason and logic, and indeed, that He is much too great to be known by an other-than-Him for truly, no one knows God but God. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

I am an ordinary woman who did extraordinary things. The first to qualify as a ground engineer. The first to fly to Australia single-handed. A million people lined the streets of London when I came home. I waved to them from an open-topped car like the queen, the queen of the air. ~ Kate Lord Brown

The source of every disobedience, indifference, and passion is self-satisfaction. The source of every obedience, vigilance, and virtue is dissatisfaction with one's self. It is better for you to keep company with an ignorant man dissatisfied with himself than to keep company with a learned man satisfied with himself. For what knowledge is there in a self-satisfied scholar? And what ignorance is there in an unlearned man dissatisfied with himself? ~ Ibn Ata Illah

Actions are but lifeless forms whose soul is the secret of sincerity in them ~ Ibn Ata Allah

Yes.
Work is love made visible. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

Extinction is the beginning of the path: it is traveling to God Most High. Guidance comes afterwards. What I mean by guidance is the guidance of God, as described by the Friend of God, Abraham: "Lo! I am going unto my Lord Who will guide me." ~ Ibn Ata Allah

People are worms, and even the God who created them is immensely bored with their antics. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

Toyin Falola has given us what is truly rare in modern African writing: a seriously funny, racy, irreverent package of memories, and full of the most wonderful pieces of poetry and ordinary information. It is a matter of some interest, that the only other volume A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt reminds one of is Ake, by Wole Soyinka. What is it about these Yorubas? ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

You know perfectly well that if ever you really want to, you can come back to me, he said without the slightest trace of irony and cynicism, and left. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

I know of nothing more useful to you than four matters: surrender to Allah, to humbly entreat Him, to think the best of Him, and to perpetually renew your repentance to Him, even if you should repeat as in seventy times in a day. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

They had always told me that I wrote like a man. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

And yet, I have not wronged you, have I? Indeed if there is anyone I may have sinned against, it is me. That desiring you as I do, needing you as I do, I still let you go. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

The covenant of your servanthood is that you be a servant to God, not to someone else, and that you know that everything except God is a servant to God, as He Most High has said, "There is none in the heaven and the earth but cometh unto the Compassionate as a servant." ~ Ibn Ata Allah

There are powerful forces undermining progress in Africa. But one must never underestimate the power of the people to bring about change. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

Many Englishmen have written about camels. When I open a book and see the familiar disparagement, the well-worn humour, I realize that the author's knowledge of them is slight, that he has never lived among the Bedu, who know the camel's worth: 'Ata Allah', or 'God's gift', they call her, and it is her patience that wins the Arab's heart. I have never seen a Bedu strike or ill-treat a camel. Always the camel's needs come first. It is not only that the Bedu's existence depends upon the welfare of his animals, but that he has a real affection for them. ~ Wilfred Thesiger

If you do not think well of Him because His qualities are beautiful then think well of Him because of the way He treats you. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

Because I am an African, I am a Ghanaian. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

Make no choice upon your own authority in anything, and choose not to choose. Flee from that choice, from your flight, and from everything to Allah." Imam Shadhili ~ Ibn ʻAta' Allah Al-Iskandari

The ambition of the spiritual traveller never wants to stop with what it has been shown save that the voices of reality call to him, what you seek is ahead of you. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

The most beloved manifestation of obedience to God is trust in Him ~ Ibn Ata Allah

Africa is not fulfilling people's hopes and aspirations. African leaders have not had an agenda that included governing Africa so that people would find their careers, their life, dreams and visions fulfilled here. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

I seek refuge in Thee from every hope which would distract me. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

If a tablet is not wiped clean of it's figures, nothing can be written upon it. A single heart cannot serve as the place for two things, let alone for several things. If the heart is filled with the forms of sensory perceptions, it is rare that it would perceive the meaning of Allah, even if one were to say Allah a thousand times. When the heart is empty of all that is other-than-God, if one uttered Allah only once, one would find such bliss that the tongue could not describe. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

Time by itself means nothing, no matter how fast it moves, unless we give it something to carry for us; something we value. Because it is such a precious vehicle, is time. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

When she can't sleep, she writes. All she remembers is his words. It will soon be dawn, with fire-stoked horses thundering to the humming sky of crickets. I will see you run. And I will run with you. That morning, while Ata ate a dripping mango over the sink, she felt him come up behind her and touch the small of her back, light as a current of air. He kissed the side of her neck, inhaled the steam of bitter cocoa, boiling with bay leaves, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and said it reminded him of his childhood. "You are from the islands," she said. But then he was gone. ~ Oonya Kempadoo

The realization of 'La ilaha illa Allah' is one of the states of the heart that can be neither expressed by the tongue nor thought out by the mind. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

MY WISH I wish I could have a woman like you To be my better half The mother of my children I wish I could have a woman like you To be the organizer of my home and The selector of my costume I wish I could have a woman like you To love her And be loved by her I wish I could have a woman like you To love my children And be loved by me children I wish I could have a woman like you Whom, I can walk with in public places And feel proud ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

Invoking removes darkness and brings forth radiant lights. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

One had said, 'You say you come from Ghaanna? Then we have a lot in common!' Sissie didn't know what to do with the statement, uncertain of whether it was a threat or a promise.
'We had chiefs like you,' the Scot went on, 'who fought one another and all, while the Invader marched in.' Sissie thanked her, but also felt strongly that their kinship had better end right there. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

Let your invocation be the all-embracing Name, which is Allah, Allah, Allah, or if you so wish, Huwa, Huwa, Huwa; and do not violate this remembrance. Be careful lest your tongue pronounce it while other-than-He is in your heart. Let your heart be the one who utters, and your ear the one who is attentive to this invocation until the 'speaker' emanates from your Self (sirr). When you feel the emergence of the Speaker within you through the invocation, do not abandon the spiritual condition wherein you find yourself. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

No matter what anybody says, we can't have it all. Not if you are a woman. Not yet. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

It's a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

Sissie could see it all. In her uncertain eyes, on her restless hands and on her lips, which she kept biting all the time.
But oh, her skin. It seemed as if according to the motion of her emotions Marija's skin kept switching on and switching off like a two-colour neon sign. So that watching her against the light of the dying summer sun, Sissie could not help thinking that it must be a pretty dangerous matter, being white. It made you feel awfully exposed, rendered you terribly vulnerable. Like being born without your skin or something. As though the Maker had fashioned the body of a human, stuffed it into a polythene bag instead of the regular protective covering, and turned it loose into the world.
Lord, she wondered, is that why, on the whole, they have had to be extra ferocious? Is it so they could feel safe here on the earth, under the sun, the moon and the stars? ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

So long as you are in this world, be not surprised at the existence of sorrows. ~ Ibn Ata Allah

Once in a while I catch myself wondering whether I would have found the courage to write if I had not started to write when I was too young to know what was good for me. ~ Ama Ata Aidoo

If you do not know the blessings you have when you have them, then Allah will teach you about them by taking them away from you ~ Ibn Ata Allah

The most excellent of those who perform good deeds are those who most often remember God in all situations. ~ Ibn Ata Allah